


Soul Windows

by Tloak



Series: Luwa Shepard [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, omega - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 06:46:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13242744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tloak/pseuds/Tloak
Summary: As part of the preparations for hitting Sanctum Shepard takes a break from the Reapers to help with Aria take back Omega. She could have chosen a better way to forget about her problems.





	1. Chapter 1

Charge. Punch. _Squelch._ Repeat.

Charge. Punch. _Squelch._ Repeat.  
  
Charge. Punch. _Thunk._

Shit.

_'Maybe next time the Alliance could spring for some air support.'_

Luwa shoved her carnifex in her holster as she yelled and launched herself into a charge at nearest Cerberus logo. Ramming herself through his shields, she grabbed him before he could stumble too far and-

_saw Thessia in her mind's eye, an entire planet crumbling under the Reaper destruction until_

it splattered across the floor in front of her. Shepard shook the grey matter of the last Cerberus trooper off her inferno gauntlet and bent down to grab her discarded carnifex.

"Clear," Aria called from behind her. Luwa could hear the amused smirk rising on her face. Shepard ignored it and shook the tension from her shoulders as she headed for the door at the far end of the room. 

"Move out."

Aria nodded, following Luwa to the door leading to the next part of their route.  The tension bled from Luwa's shoulders and she let her stride relax when the Pirate Queen failed to comment on her emotional behavior. Of course, she should have remembered that Aria was never one to let things go. 

"Is _your_ hatred of Cerberus getting the best of you?" She asked in a tone Shepard would call almost innocent--if it wasn't dripping with sarcasm. "Or is it someone specific?"

Luwa stopped in front of the door and resisted an irritated cringe at the reminder of Kai Leng and his  _fucking_ gunship. Her fingers itched to plunge through his grey matter the second she caught him alone. Instead, she ran her fingers through her short fro to hide their twitching form Aria. She suppressed a shudder when she remembered what had just been on them. Whatever. She needed another shave to keep up with Alliance regs anyway. 

Clearly, Luwa wasn't getting away with her outburst. She heaved a sigh and turned to face Aria, holstering her carnifex. "For once, can you just leave this alone?"

Aria smirked and shifted her weight to one hip, her Disciple shotgun pointed at the ground. "You know I don't care about your grudges Shepard." Aria sauntered up to the Spectre, invading her personal space. "However, I put you in charge of this ground offensive, and I find it concerning when you replace your usual bullet with your fist." Aria ended her sentence in a whisper, her eyes hard and locked on Shepard's. 

Luwa turned around and started bypassing the door. "I'm fine, Aria. This mission will get done just fine."

Aria nodded. "See that it does." She hoisted her shotgun and turned, her eyes on Shepard's six. 

Of course, this door turned out to be just a little harder to bypass. Shepard turned to a hail of "more Cerberus troops!" and rolled into cover.

She sighed and called "Flare on our right flank!" as she retrieved her carnifex. "Use incendiary ammo!"

The Spectre charged, launching herself at the nearest Centurion. She charged up her fist with heavy blue static and punched through the rest of his shields before lining up her carnifex and blowing his brains out.

Her amp hummed in the base of her skull, warm with use as she rinsed and repeated. She charged the Trooper behind her, using a bit of her enhanced speed at its tail end to carefully line the carnifex up between his eyes before splattering his brains across the floor.

"Shepard, on your left!"

"Shit." Luwa dodged the Trooper's hand disruptor, nova-ed, and ran toward cover, shooting at the rag-dolling Trooper as she went.

"Fuck!" She had missed his head. Instead her bullet tore through his neck, leaving his head flopping, but still irritatingly whole. The Trooper's eyes bore into her from behind his helmet, accusing her for the deaths of millions. They prosecuted her for the lives she'd taken--on Torfan, on Aratoht--for the Asari whose hopes she'd heartlessly manipulated on Thessi-

_whineeeee_

Shepard ducked the Nemesis' bullet and called to Aria. "Flare up in the sniper's nest on our left."

Aria complied, giving only an offhand "hmm" to indicate what she thought about Shepard wasting so much firepower on a lone target. Luwa shook her head and swapped out for her Widow. She picked off Cerberus troops from cover, refusing to engage the Asari. Aria was at least capable enough to follow orders without question. She didn't need to know that Shepard had a slight tremor in her hands that prevented her from playing chicken with an expert Nemesis sniper.

Soon enough the room was clear again. Not a moment too soon the door behind them pinged and slid open, her bypass program finally finished. Shepard stifled a groan as she stood up from cover and walked toward it, Aria taking place at her seven.

"Let's just get to the central column." She muttered as she and Aria walked down the empty, decrepit halls of the late Mordin Solus' clinic.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus doesn't appreciate being left behind.

_Five hours Earlier:_

Garrus was a mess.

One moment he was trying to eek an extra .06 percent accuracy out of the Thanix cannon, and the next he was being informed by EDI that Shepard had gone off to help Aria with her ground offensive on Omega. _Alone_. With only Omega's slyest to watch her six. Would she even be paired up with Aria?

Garrus removed his hands from the calibration interface and braced himself against the metal control panel. He breathed out a humorless chuckle. The last ten lines of code he had written were useless. He deleted them and closed his terminal. He wasn't going to be of any use for a while either.

Garrus shook his head and pushed off the control panel. Luwa hadn’t slept more than an hour before they made it to the Citadel. And he’d bet his life she wasn’t sleeping on Aria’s ship. Garrus sighed and walked down to the kitchen area, calling up as he went: “EDI, wake me up if she gets back before I wake up.”

Her voice chimed in from the ceiling: “You’ll be the first to know Garrus. Except me of course. And everyone in the shuttle bay—but you will be informed immediately upon her arrival.”

“Thanks, EDI” he responded dryly as he grabbed a—he snorted—czalco flavored paste packet from the rations cabinet. He choked it down with one of Chakwas' sleeping pills as he walked back up to the battery, took off his chest plate, and laid down on his cot.

* * *

 Joker and EDI sat in their usual silence, thought it lacked some of its usual comfort.

“He didn’t take it well did he.”

“No. As predicted he experienced a decrease in work efficiency and opted to rest.” EDI hesitated. “He is worried.”

“Yeah,” Joker huffed. “I don’t blame him.”


End file.
